David Pilliod - Leopold Institute
COOPERATORS:
R. Bruce Bury and Erin J. Hyde - USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, Oregon
Katherine Strickler - University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
Terrie Jain, Jeff Evans, and Andy Hudak - Rocky Mountain Research Station, Moscow, Idaho
BACKGROUND
Prescription burning is an important management tool for reducing fuel loads and restoring natural fire cycles to fire-adapted western forests. Implementing a prescription burn usually requires a preliminary assessment of the potential effects of the treatment on the immediate environment. A general lack of information on the effects of fire on sensitive fish and wildlife can be an impediment to evaluating fuel treatment projects on federal lands. Several amphibian and invertebrate species in the western U.S. are sensitive to disturbances that alter aquatic and riparian habitat conditions and water quality. Information on the effects of fire and fuel reducing activities on stream ecosystems is needed to improve science-based fuel management planning.
PROJECT GOALS
The goal of the project is to understand how fire in upland and riparian forests influences stream communities and determine whether prescription burning mimics the ecological function of fire in a watershed. The project has two components: wildland fire and prescribed fire.
WILDLAND FIRE EFFECTS
To document the range of biotic and abiotic responses to wildland fires, we are comparing stream communities and habitat conditions in watersheds that burned, at varying intensities, to streams in unburned forests (fires absent for 50-70 yrs).
PRESCRIBED FIRE EFFECTS
To determine whether prescription burning restores the "ecological integrity" of forests, we are monitoring stream communities and habitat conditions before and after prescription burn treatments and comparing observed responses to unburned reference streams during the same time periods.
To View Further information on this project, please refer to: PROJECT DETAILS
This project is supported in part by:
- Joint Fire Science Program
- National Fire Plan (projects)
- ARMI - Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative
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